If the UnitedStates collapses in the near future, you’ll no doubt be tempted to point a few fingers. Just don’t blameEmily St. John Mandel.
As Covid-19 tore across the planet, Mandel became something of a pandemic prophet for writing the hit 2014 novel,Station Eleven. Journalists and everyday Twitter users alike looked to her for guidance as they hunkered down at home, desperate for someone—anyone—to tell them what was happening, and what might come next. Now, Mandel is out with a new book,Exit Party, that documents the interwoven lives of people living in two different, near-future versions of the US: A violent, post-civil-war free-for-all, and a totalitarian state where surveillance runs roughshod over a paranoid populace. She started writing the book in 2022, when polarization and political extremism were already surging—but well before the era ofTrump 2.0,widespread ICE raids, andtech-infused surveillancewe’re living through today.
Exit Partyis a tremendous, riveting, deeply human novel—one of the best I’ve read in years. And despite being strictly fictional, the two futures thatExit Partyimagines also feel eerily, uncomfortably close to reality. But as Mandel reminded me when we sat down at WIRED’s New York studio, the book is also infused with plenty of hope, and forces readers to ask themselves important questions about what kind of person they’d be if it all went to hell. She was also, of course, quick to point out that “it doesn't actually take any particular clairvoyance,” to see where this moment in US history might take us. So no, Mandel can’t help you much if the militias roll through—butExit Partymight offer a few lessons in how to show up for your neighbors. (And throw thebestpost-collapse party.)
You can read our full (light on spoilers) conversation below, or listen toUncanny Valleyanywhere you get your podcasts.Exit Partyis out today, September 15, and I highly recommend you pick up a copy.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
KATIE DRUMMOND: Emily, thank you so much for being here. I will get this out of the way at the top and acknowledge that we are both Brooklyn moms. And sometimes when you're a Brooklyn mom, you become friends with another Brooklyn mom, and we are actually friends outside of work.
EMILY ST. JOHN MANDEL:Because you seek out the best mom you can find at the playground.
We met at the playground in the latter stages of theCovid-19mask era. I've known you ever since. But regardless of that, and I'm saying this very, very genuinely, I readExit Party—I was lucky enough to get a galley ahead of publication—in a single day. I highly recommend it.
Thank you so much. It's such a pleasure to be here.
For those who didn’t get an advance copy, could you explain what it's about?
God, the elevator pitch on this book has been so challenging.
I can understand why.
I suck at elevator pitches generally. But I think of this as a story about crime and resilience. It's about trying to be a decent person when things are falling apart, and it's about who you're going to be at the end of the world. I don't mean to imply that the collapse of a country is the end of the world, but what I do mean to imply is that it feels like it.
I do see this as a hopeful book. It's about what comes next and trying to be a new person in a rapidly changing and difficult landscape.
